Film Noir Matinee Series

Film Noir Matinee Series

"The Maltese Falcon" (1931)

This pre-Hollywood Production Code film based on Dashiell Hammett’s novel was released just a year after the book and ten years before John Huston’s more famous film version. The story revolves around the search for the “black bird” that everyone – including Sam Spade, Ruth Wonderly, Joel Cairo and Casper Gutman – seems willing to lie, cheat, steal -- and possibly kill -- for.

Join other noir enthusiasts on Saturday, May 26 at 2 p.m. in the second-floor auditorium for a film screening and discussion, including a comparison with the 1941 version in an effort to discover if the conventions of film noir really started in the 1940s.